Is Jon Morrow’s Freedom Machine Legit? A scam? Earn money blogging and get a discount for the course

Updated: Apr 30

If you are looking at how to succeed in the online business, your mailbox is flooded with all sort of offers by now. Low price bundles, high priced irresistible time limited offers that expire soon.

I have made some poor choices. But I also have done one that I didn't regret for a second.

Photo by Plush Design Studio on Unsplash

Months ago, I have stumbled upon Jon Morrow and his offer of teaching me to blog in a way that generates a passive monthly income of $1000 and more.

Who Is This For?

Maybe you are looking for this information because you, like me, want to get noticed in the incredible noise out there. Maybe you want a decent income that would not require trading time for money.

Maybe you want to launch a blog that will make an impact. And for the blog to have an impact, it has to have outreach.

And for it to have an outreach, you either need to study a lot of SEO and become an expert on web creation, blogging, and Search Engine Optimization, or you need to hire one.

And maybe you, like me, are looking for some accountability. I was contemplating to launch a blog for ages and didn’t really get to it. And I felt like now was the time.

I wanted to get my blog up and running, to move into the world where you make money online and don’t have to travel all over the place.

I was a newbie in the online world. I was somewhat literate when it comes to technology, but as a mom of three small kids I couldn’t really afford to make it all by myself via trial and error just to find out my web page doesn’t get noticed.

I have watched this Freedom Machine free webinar, and what Jon teaches there made sense to me. You may want to watch it before your sign-in, it gives you a good idea an what you get for your money.

Value for money, safety, and guarantee

1. My blog will be built by people who know what they are doing.

If I was to get my website done by an expert, I could have easily spend more than on the Freedom Machine, I would still have to write the content, and I could still end up happily ignored in the crowd.

2. The math works - you invest -> you harvest.

The Freedom Machine promises to guide you through a process of creating a web that has a built-in mechanism for earning $1000 per month. So my thoughts were: “Yes, I need to put 10 hours a week to make it happen, but if I do succeed, I would have the Freedom Machine tuition back in two months time.”

3. I wanted to see by my own eyes safely.

Given the unconditional 30 days money back guarantee I could take a sneak peak, work along with Jon Morrow, learn for 30 days and escape if I feel it's not for me.

4. I already tested the money back guarantee.

I have bought another low tier course from Jon Morrow in the past. It didn’t provide me with the answers I was looking for, requested a money refund, and I got it, no questions asked. (Not that it was a bad content, it just was not the right fit.)

5. None of Jon's online "enemies" tried the course themselves.

When I googled whether Jon Morrow is a scam and if Freedom Machine was legit, all I could find was a question on quora followed by a few haters - none of them attended the course though.

6. Stop anytime.

Still, I did not want to risk to lose the money in case Jon Morrow was a scam, like the site I found claimed. So I decided to go with monthly payment. I will pay 20% more, but I can quit paying anytime I decide to.

7. Money back if your Freedom Machine doesn't work.

Jon Morrow guarantees that, if you do invest the work, he would return the money back in case your Freedom Machine does not end up generating the promised $1000 a month in a year time.

8. How they hire for customer service people is awesome.

I got an email from Jon Morrow’s Senior Instructor, Marsha Stopa about a job opening. It was sent to their student lists first before they open it publicly. Plus points! Anyway, I have read their job description and this is what has re-assured me even further: “We believe in doing what’s right for our customers, even when it’s painful.” They go on about the ability of the candidate to go an extra mile for the customer just so the customer is happy.

Still in!

Six months in and I still did not request the money back. I did not quit the course and monthly tuition either. I like what I am getting.

It’s not just a course where you are supposed to consume the content on your own and you are left alone if you get stuck. It’s actually the other way round.

There are at least five people who are guiding you through the process in a very high touch hand-holding way. It can even be a little annoying especially if you are clear on what you want to write about and how.

Here is how it works:

1. In each of the lesson, you go through the videos recorded by Jon Morrow. To me his speech cadence is a little too slow, but there is always this option in the video settings to accelerate it to 1.25 or 1.5 x speed. Alternatively, you can download the transcript.

2. In most of the lessons there are so called mini-courses recorded by Jon’s staff where they guide you through handy tools, walk you through specific examples of what Jon presented in the lesson video.

3. There is also a mini test for each lesson. That I don’t find annoying at all, it is easy, it is on one screen, five multiple choice questions where you just tick the right tick box in a minute. It just tests whether you listened to the lesson’s video and you got the concepts right. And there is nothing like failure. You just re-submit if you don't get it first time right.

4. There are milestones you need to reach so that you can move to the next lesson. It does make sense to me, if Freedom Machine is happy to guarantee that you will get 1000 USD per month by the blog they help you to build (and in fact do the technical part for you), they need to make sure you follow their recipe.

5. You get A LOT of support. The process is iterative and cooperative. You are being held to very high standards.

6. You can send your research requests to be processed by Jon’s assistant. That alone saves loads of time and money.

7. There are weekly Q&A videoconferences with Jon in person. I have just tried to submit a question to see if it will get answered. It was put on the list of the questions of the next call. The calls are recorded so you can get to them even if you can’t make it real time.

What Did I Get In Five Months

1. I got clarity on who I want to write for and what about and I got it confirmed that while I am in the overcrowded place, it’s also a space where the market exists.

2. I studied, with the help of Jon’s staff, the competition and got a good idea how my blog fits there. I wrote six articles I am proud of — I got plenty of feedback.

3. I have my blog launched! Yay! Feel free to subscribe, no spam, I promise.

4. I have build a meaningful social media presence. I created a Facebook page and have 100+ people following and participating. I created an Instagram and Twitter account and I learned how to create beautiful posts and memes and how to synchronize the posts so that it gets on different media with one click.

5. I have thicken my skin. Previously I was afraid about what people will think about what I write and I was hiding. I am way more comfortable to put my ideas out there to be tested.

My Other Concerns Addressed

Will going slower will anyhow affect the money back guarantee?

The answer from Jon was: No, it won’t. We will refund you in case you make it to the finish line according to our instructions and you don’t get your web to generate 1000 USD a month after 6 to 12 months of your web being up and running.

Will I have to spend, apart from the expensive course, also on ads?

The answer is NO again — if you do it right and go through the process, you will not need to pay Google to get traffic to your site.

So ... Should You Sign Up?

Depends.

If you like to have an accountability buddy and you like your hand to be held during the process of launching your blog, if you appreciate that Jon’s staff will do the SEO and other technical stuff related to your web for you, and if you are ready to put hours and effort into the project….

…. then definitely yes.

UPDATE: this course is no longer available, but you can get the same content on the self-study cours where you get tutorials for everything you need to build your successful blog, aka freedom machine.

If you are on budget and can't afford the full hands-on experience, you can still consider buying access to the self-study course for half the price.

And as a thank you for reading this far, if you decide to give it a go, send me an email on michalakozinova@gmail.com and I will share a secret discount code with you so you don’t have to pay the full price.

You will use the coupon in the end of the Freedom Machine webinar. You can make sure that I respond right away by putting Freedom Machine code in your subject line.

In the name of full disclosure, I will get a small commission if you buy the course. I am happy to address any questions you might have and you didn’t get answers to in this article.

Oh, and if you are looking for additional accountability, I can wholeheartedly recommend hiring one of the coaches in the writing domain on coach.me If you use my code MISAWEEK, you will get your first week free.